I was inspired to write this review by this tweet. YA is an interesting genre. Nix’s previous books (which I adore) have given us a very typical YA heroines. They are morally clear, they have self doubt which they work through, and they are generally good. In Clariel – which a lot of Nix fans didn’t like – we don’t get that. Clariel is a prequel to Sabriel – Nix’s first “Old Kingdom” book. It’s set a couple of hundred years in the past. Clariel […]
Mortal Engines
Steampunk interests me. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I’ve enjoyed several steampunk films I’ve seen. Mortal Engines was the first steampunk novel I’ve read. When I first picked it up I had no idea that it was a steampunk motif. Halfway through it suddenly dawned on me that this is what a lot of people talk about when they say a steampunk novel. Mortal Engines is set in the post-apocalyptic future where cities are movable and travel around devouring one another […]
Wonder Woman: The True Amazon
With the new Wonder Woman movie coming out soon, I wanted to brush up on my knowledge of Diana. I happened upon this graphic novel in my library and thought I would pick it up. I’ll be honest, besides the 1970’s show, which I think is the only time Wonder Woman has had her own screen time, I didn’t know anything about her. The graphic novel roots Diana’s story in ancient Greece and the war between Herakles and the Amazon’s queen. They end up moving […]
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015
I’ve been working reading more contemporary Sci Fi/Fantasy and “The Best American” series is a great resource. The 2015 edition was the first year they’ve compiled an anthology for these genres and it was good premiere. At the outset, they explain the complexities of having an anthology that encompasses both Science Fiction and Fantasy; each one has elements of the other. The editors provide a cursory explanation of each genre, however, without being too technical. It was entertaining to try and guess into which some […]
The Black Canary
Time travel intrigues me. It’s one of those devices that can either be done well or doesn’t work at all. In this book, it doesn’t work. There’s no explanation for why there’s a time waro that exists in the basement of James’s house nor how he’s supposed to know that once he crosses into the past that he’ll return to the same moment in the future. It also leads me to question how random animals like cats, rats, etc. don’t wander into the time warp […]
Get it together, Maas
At the end of Queen of Shadows, the King of Adarlan has been killed, Prince Dorian is going to be the king, Aelin and her court are on their way to Terrasen to take her crown, Kaltain has blown up the dungeons of Morath, and Manon has rescued Elide. For some reason, I felt like the story was over. As it happens, it wasn’t and that annoyed me. I read Empire of Storms under a cloud of annoyance. I probably could have shaken it off […]