I’m going to go way out on a limb and guess that I’m not the first, or even the fifth, person to review this book over the years for CBR. In fact, it was the recommendation of fellow CBRer narfna that finally led me to pluck Mistborn off my wishlist. I’ve been going through a major fantasy kick over the last few years, but it wasn’t until recently that I’d heard of Mistborn, as all I really knew of Sanderson to that point was his […]
Trilogy Tour #3: Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne #1
Kaden has been training in a remote mountain monastery for the past 8 years. His younger brother Valyn has also been training for the past 8 years — as an assassin for the giant-bird flying Kettral, a deadly group of elite soldiers. Their older sister Adare remained in the capital to learn the game of politics from their father, the Emperor of the Annur. The Emperor’s sudden murder sends shockwaves through each of his children, and they must piece together the details of his demise […]
No Way To Title This Without Spoilers
Oooooh boy. So this one took me awhile to get into again. I think a lot of people are big fans of how each book tends to start with this sort of long chapter that focuses on people we don’t know and won’t likely see again (or see much of any time soon). I … am not. I think in retrospect those chapters are an interesting way to set the tone of the book, but it also means that I’m going to really need to […]
This review has been approved for distribution as conducive to the cause of Light -The Night Watch
Target: Sergei Lukyanenko’s Night Watch. Translated by Andrew Bromfield Profile: Urban Fantasy, Suspense, Horror, The Watches Pentalogy (Read in stereotypical movie preview voiceover) In a world where epic battles between good and evil are a dime a dozen on the Teen Fantasy shelves, one Russian author struggles to bring a sense of subtly and realism to stories about vampires, werewolves and wizards. (End voiceover) And that’s to his credit. Lukyanenko’s vision of a supernatural world where nothing is as it seems sounds trite on paper, but […]
Fewer demons, more elves in this one
This book is book 12 and the penultimate in The Hollows series, with several story lines that have been building throughout the series. It’s absolutely NOT the place to start. If you haven’t read these, start with Dead Witch Walking. Frankly, if you don’t know the series, you’d probably be best just skipping this review. Rachel is working security for Trent while Quen is on the West Coast. Despite her many former misgivings about working for and with the billionaire, she’s been enjoying herself, possibly a bit too […]
Alif The Unseen
“if you can’t pay with things, you could pay with skills,” said Sakina, motioning to the shadow. “Well, wait a minute,” said Alif, looking from the shadow to Sakina. “My skills are more or less limited to computers… I’m not sure how much help that is to an, ah, to a…” Effrit, said the shadow. I’m an effrit. And I’ve got a two-year-old Dell desktop in the back that’s had some kind of virus for ages. The screen goes black five minutes after I […]