Archives by Tag 'Fantasy'
Review: ‘The Novice’ by Trudi Canavan
Title: The Novice (Black Magician Trilogy II) Author: Trudi Canavan Published: Orbit, 2007, pp. 581 Genre: Fantasy Blurb: Imardin is a city of dark intrigues and deadly politics, where those who wield magic wield power. Into this established order has blundered a young street-girl with extraordinary magical gifts. Adopted by the Magicians’ Guild, her life is [...]
Review: ‘A Lion Among Men’ by Gregory Maguire
Title: A Lion Among Men Author: Gregory Maguire Published: Headline Review, 2009, pp. 426 Genre: Fantasy Blurb: While civil war looms in Oz, an oracle named Yackles prepares for death. Before her final hour, the Cowardly Lion arrives searching for information about Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Yackles, who hovered on the sidelines [...]
Review: ‘The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear’ by Walter Moers
Title: The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear – Being the biography of a seagoing bear, with numerous illustrations and excerpts from the ‘Encyclopaedia of the Marvels, Life Forms and Other Phenomena of Zamonia and its Environs’ by Professor Abdullah Nightingale Author: Walter Moers, trans. John Brownjohn Published: Vintage, 2001, pp. 704 Genre: Fantasy Blurb: [...]
Review: ‘The Magician’s Guild’ by Trudi Canavan
This year, like every other, the magicians of Imardin gather to purge the city of undesirables. Cloaked in the protection of their sorcery, they move with no fear of the vagrants and miscreants who despise them and their work—until one enraged girl, barely more than a child, hurls a stone at the hated invaders . [...]
Review: ‘The Hammer of the Sun’ by Michael Scott Rohan
Elof, master smith, and his band of true friends, face their greatest challenge when they confront their nemesis with inferior forces and crippling odds that must not give into a stronger power. (Goodreads Summary) I have never before been this disappointed with the final installment in a trilogy. In fact, had it not been the [...]
Review: ‘The Dark Portal’ by Robin Jarvis
In the sewers of Deptford there lurks a dark presence which fills the tunnels with fear. The rats worship it in the blackness and name it jupiter, lord of All. Into this twilight realm wanders a small and frightened mouse. Far from family and friends he perishes, and is the unwitting trigger of a chain [...]
Review: ‘The Forge in the Forest’ by Michael Scott Rohan
The siege of Kerbryhaine had been raised, the Ekwesh hordes vanquished, the Mastersmith slain. But for Alv — now Elof the Smith — the war was not yet won: Kerbryhaine was still a divided city; the Ekwesh, bloodily defeated, would look for revenge; and the Ice, implacably malevolent, continued its inexorable march southward. So from [...]