The Left Hand of God is an amateurish, poorly written third-rate fantasy novel packed full of stereotypes and devoid of anything interesting for the experienced reader. Avoid it like the plague.
Read moreKeeping the Door is now back in business again after a four-month hiatus that lasted three months more than I originally planned. But by and large it will now re-commence operations, publishing a handful of news stories about the sci-fi/fantasy book scene each week, and regular reviews.
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With Dragon Haven, fantasy master Robin Hobb has begun to rekindle some of the magic that had left her most recent works, particularly the Soldier Son trilogy. The book represents a satisfying conclusion to the two book series --The Rain Wild Chronicles -- Hobb has penned as a follow-up to her extended nine book saga The Realm of the Elderlings, while still leaving room for future works in that world. Robin Hobb is back in form. And with Dragon Haven she's cutting up the fantasy scene once again.
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Gardens of the Moon is a remarkable book and a must-read for the more advanced fantasy fans amongst us. Ten years ago, its publication heralded the birth of a fantastic new epic series in the Malazan Book of the Fallen. But it's a flawed novel. It's not a masterpiece like Assassin's Apprentice or The Eye of the World that will appeal to everyone. Instead, it's an breath-taking experiment in fantasy – perhaps along the same line of power as R. Scott Bakker's The Darkness That Comes Before, that experienced fantasy readers will want to add to their collection and ponder deep into the night.
Read moreBear is best known among fans for books like 1985's Eon and 1987's The Forge of God, although he has written a variety of other novels, including fantasy books, Star Trek books, and in general has diversified out of the hard science fiction sub-category he mainly wrote in in the 1980's. Mariposa pictures an America which has been driven to near bankruptcy by crushing foreign debt. There is one success story – the Talos Corporation, which trains soldiers and provides logistics and troops for the US Government. But the company's end goals are somewhat more nefarious – the destruction of the government itself.
Read moreAmerican science fiction master Kim Stanley Robinson has slammed the US Republican Party's attitude towards climate change, describing it as “like the Catholic Church denying the Earth went around the sun in Galileo's time”. Robinson says the Republicans are going to crawl away from their climate policy “mistake” later and pretend it never happened.
Read moreAustralian fantasy author Karen Miller has finished The Reluctant Mage, the next book in her Fisherman's Children series, which is the continuation of her Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series commenced with The Innocent Mage. “Shit. I did it. I can't believe it,” wrote Miller on her LiveJournal page this week.
Read moreTwilight author Stephanie Meyer appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show on November 13 to support the launch of the film adaptation of the second book in the series: New Moon. The Twilight series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, according to Wikipedia, and is being made into a film series, with audiences enthralled by the love story between American teen Bella and Edward Cullen, a former human who was transformed into a vampire. In the interview Meyer said she started writing Twilight after having a vivid dream which became chapter 13 of the first book in the series. The scene is the one where Bella and Edward are in the woods and she reveals she knows he is a vampire.
Read moreFantasy author George R. R. Martin has told his UK publisher he might hand over A Dance with Dragons, the long-awaited next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, “soon”. It is common for fans of the series, one of the major fantasy works currently ongoing, to complain about the length of time taken by Martin to write each new book.
Read moreRaymond E. Feist fans are only a short time away from stepping back into the fantasy world of Midkemia, with the author's new book At the Gates of Darkness due out in some areas in early January 2010. At the Gates of Darkness is the second book in the Demonwar Saga arc, after 2009's Rides a Dread Legion.
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