I think I read the original Bartimaeus trilogy back in Cannonball IV. It’s definitely a series you need to read before trying to get into this one, which is a prequel. If you have read the series before, you know that humans bind demons to do their bidding, which doesn’t make demons very enamored of humans and on more than one occasion, a demon has found a loophole in his contract and eaten his slaver. Bartimaeus fancies himself as the best demon to ever demon, […]
Hey, Not Every Review I Write is Negative!
After reading a string of unsatisfying fantasy, I danced with joy when Clariel was released because I knew Garth Nix would not disappoint. If you have not read his Abhorsen trilogy yet, you should get on that immediately, especially if you are a fan of young adult fantasy with strong women characters. You could start with this book, because it’s a prequel to the trilogy and covers lot of the basics of the world building, I think it makes a better companion piece to the trilogy […]
Slightly disappointing prequel to a series I love.
This is a prequel, and prequels can be dicey, so let me just start by saying: this could have been much, much, much worse. Clariel is the story–not of how young Clariel becomes Chlorr of the Mask from the original series like I was expecting it to be–but of how the foundations for that eventual change are laid. Seventeen year old Clariel moves with her family to the city of Belisaere. Clariel’s a girl of the forest, so right away this makes her unhappy, but the city […]
Dunk and Egg Strike Back
NOTE: The Sworn Sword was originally published as a novella in the Legends II anthology, edited by Robert Silverberg. As before in my review of The Hedge Knight, I did not read many of the novellas due to spoilers, so this review will only cover The Sword Sword, which is the second Dunk and Egg novella. (Actually, the only other one that I read was Gaiman’s American Gods novella, which was pretty good, by the way.) The Sworn Sword opens a year and a half […]
Egg . . . because his bald head looks like an egg. Get it?
NOTE: The Hedge Knight was originally published in the Legends I anthology, edited by Robert Silverberg. As the stories/novellas in the collection are set in previously existing fictional universes, and I have only read two of the series in question, I am only reviewing Martin’s novella at this time. This was really fun and I’m kind of mad at myself as a Martin fan for not checking it out sooner. If you like A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones at all, you should […]