Reviews

Obsidian Butterfly takes Anita out of her usual territory when Edward (bounty hunter, assassin, and scourge of the preternatural), invites her along for backup in a New Mexico monster-hunt. It’s a rare chance to learn something new and interesting about Edward, who has been a consistent figure of mystery in the novels to date. And it does not disappoint in the least. Fans of the series will appreciate the fact that the sexuality in this novel has been toned down significantly.

Absolution Gap is the fourth and final book in a series; as such, I will write about my impressions of the entire series as well as the final book specifically. The series also includes Revelation Space, and Chasm City. Overall, the author has a fresh voice, an innovative concept of the future, and interesting stories to tell. The plot twists through some very surprising (and sometimes, too surprising) turns. While I enjoyed the journey into the mind and vision of the author, some aspects of the books did not turn out well.

When Richard, the perpetual Boy Scout, gets himself thrown in jail on rape charges just a few days before the full moon, something doesn’t quite add up – and it’s Anita to the rescue. Another pack of werewolves and a hostile Master of the City in Richard’s college town don’t exactly simplify the situation, and when an endangered species of mountain troll joins the fun, this book has all the elements of a quality Anita mystery.

Arrow’s Flight is the second novel of the Arrows of the Queen trilogy, and the second in Mercedes Lackey’s tales of Valdemar. It picks up the story with the completion of Talia’s Collegium training, and about to begin her internship with one of the other Heralds. The internship period is the final test before becoming a full-fledged Herald, and it will take Talia out of the capital city of Haven and into the northern border areas of Valdemar.

If Vampire Hunter D was an excuse for a high “cool factor”, Bloodlust turns the cool factor up to 11 and adds moral ambiguity, a much longer runtime, better art, and much improved dialog. Perhaps the best way to describe this sequel is simply this: everything you liked about the first one is present in the sequel, and there are a lot of really good additions that bring depth and quality to the sequel.

What started off as an interesting story buttressed by a creative take on the feudal system quickly fell victim to unncessary complications and simply authorial incompetence. The reader is asked to empathize with cardboard cutouts while the villians go through the motions of presenting a threat. The simple purity of rune magic could have offered a way to explore the complex moral questions of the feudal system, but instead fell to irrelevance in the face of more traditional magical systems.

The King’s Peace is Jo Walton’s take on the Arthurian legends. Jo has never been a particularly good author for me, and this book is no exception. It is the first in a series, and I didn’t bother to pick up the rest. It’s also telling that this book, purportedly about King Arthur, puts a young woman on the cover and as the main character – the feminist impulse to re-imagine one of history’s most emphatically male tales in that manner loses most of its impact when it becomes clear that this retelling adds little to the genre of the Arthurian legends and lacks even the distinction of being the first or best feminist retelling.

Kushiel’s Dart bites deep, a bitter scarlet blemish in the iris of those blessed, or cursed, to experience both pain and pleasure as one. Phedre bears that mark, defining both her nature and her destiny, but an equal part of the shaping of her life is claimed by Anafiel Delaunay; Anafiel who recognizes the mark of Kushiel and determines to turn the vocation of a unique courtesan into a tool for intrigue.

The Dragon Reborn picks up several weeks after The Great Hunt left off… although relatively little has happened in that timespan. Rand struggles with the implications of events at Falme, where he raised the banner of the Dragon and battled Ba’alzamon in full view of thousands of soldiers and citizens alike. Rand, Moiraine, Perrin, and their small party of dragonsworn Shienarans are trapped near Falme, unable to move to rally the other small bands that have declared for the dragon for fear the established rulers will crush any evident focal point for the chaos.

She was a coolhunter with forty different legal identities. Her job: to drive fads; to find the “next cool thing” five to ten times per week. She was one of the best. Entire corporations rose and fell under her influence. But then some really uncool things started to happen… From the description, this sounds like an adaptation of the idea first pioneered by Connie Willis in Bellwether. Although I haven’t read this adaptation, I have read other works by this author, and most of Connie Willis’ work; between the two, Connie Willis is the better author, but even in good hands it makes for little more than an interesting intellectual exercise.