Fables 9: Sons of Empire (2007) Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Michael Allred, and Andrew Pepoy

If you haven’t been reading Bill Willingham’s “Fables” then you have been missing out.
In Sons of Empires we spend more time with Pinocchio and Geppetto and learn how they plan to carry the war into the Mundane lands in [...]

Sea Without a Shore (1996) Sean Russell

Sea Without a Shore takes up immediately after the close of World Without End. Tristam is recovering from the events on the Lost Island, Averil Kent is further embroiled in politics and working with the Countess of Chilton to keep Palle and his followers from creating a mage and [...]

World Without End (1994) Sean Russell

Reading “The River Into Darkness” series made me want to read another series written by Sean Russell, so I picked up the “”Moontide and Magic Rise” series, for which “The River Into Darkness” is the prequel. I was surprised to discover that I found this series much easier to follow [...]

The Compass of the Soul (1999) Sean Russell

The sequel (and conclusion) to Beneath the Vaulted Hills, The Compass of the Soul continues the story of Erasmus Flattery, Countess Chilton, Anna Fielding, Lord Eldrich, and those who have gathered around them in the struggle for the fate of magic.
As with the previous book, the supporting characters [...]

Beneath the Vaulted Hills (1997) Sean Russell

I’ve always been fond of Sean Russell’s books. They’re dense and complex, and I often understand them better on the second reading. But they’re also beautifully crafted works full of marvelous characters. Unfortunately, Sean Russell has not published many books. Nine fantasy novels I believe (three duologies and a [...]

Twilight Watch (2007) Sergei Lukyanenko
Translated by Andrew Bromfield

I tend to hoard books–when I buy a book I expect to be good, I’ll often wait several weeks before reading it, because it’s nice to have something I expected to be good in the line-up. But sometimes I’m looking forward to a book so much that I’ll [...]

Five Hundred Years After (1994) Steven Brust
Because I re-read Phoenix Guards, I had to follow it up with Five Hundred Years After
But really, I’m not going to re-read any of the Vlad books until I get my copy of Dzur when it comes out in paperback in the fall.
I mean it.

Phoenix Guards (1991) Steven Brust
In the mood for re-reading favorites, I just finished Phoenix Guards.
Phoenix Guards is one of the books that falls into my “pretty much perfect” category.

Swordspoint (1989) Ellen Kushner
I couldn’t help myself.
I re-read Swordspoint.
Sometimes when you’re feeling bad, you just have to turn to favorites.

Claimed by Shadow (2007) Karen Chance

This book left me feeling…annoyed.
I went and checked, and here’s how I summed up Touch the Dark:
(I)t’s an interesting story with some flaws, but for a quick read it’s pretty good, and has potential to get more interesting.
Well, unfortunately, it didn’t get more interesting. I mostly found myself annoyed [...]