Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners (1987) Ellen Kushner This is a marvelous book. Richard St Vier is a swordsman in a time and places where nobles hire swordsmen to fight their duels and to make points of honor. The system was originally created to formalize dueling, and to, one imagines, reduce the number of deaths […]

A Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (1999) I really liked this book. It may have only taken me 45 minutes to read, but it was a very enjoyable 45 minutes. A Bad Beginning begins the tale of the Baudelaire children, who, in the first few pages of the book, are orphaned and lose everything except […]

Discworld by Terry Pratchett Pyramids, Guards! Guards!, Faust Eric, Reaper Man I’ve been re-reading Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, mostly because they’re funny, and a quick read. I know I’m missing quite a few books, but I’m buying them when I find them. Pyramids ROC (1999) Teppic, son of the pharaoh of the Kingdom of the […]

Kingmaker’s Sword, The Western King, Broken Blade by Ann Marston Harper (1996, 1996, 1997) This series falls victim to the good first book problem. The first book is very good, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The problem is that the rest of the series, while good, did not really live up to the first book. […]