Isaac Asimov’s Magical World of Fantasy – Wizards, edited by Isaac Asimov (1983) – Legend has it that Mr. Asimov never had an agent so he was forever publishing anthologies with his name on them that he’d never seen or had sold to two different publishers. For this anthology, I really didn’t care if he had a hand in collecting them or not because they’re so good. As usual with anthologies, I’ll discuss each story, but I may run out of superlatives fast. Mazirian the […]
My Mother Said I Never Should
I have given up thinking about reviewing the other two books in the Bishop series, because I think they might end up increasingly hysterical rants and no-one seems to agree with me, and I am moving on the the excellent and reliable Holly Black again. Hazel and Ben live in Fairfold, a small tourist-trap town with a bunch of fairies living in the forest nearby. Once, they were as close as two siblings could be, but their relationship has fractured over the years as […]
Thank you, Mr. Pratchett, for all the joy you have brought me
Susan Sto Helit goes to a boarding school, and for the lessons she’s less interested in, she has a tendency to fade into the woodwork – literally. Susan has the ability to fade away, should she so wish it. Turns out, this is because her grandfather is none other than Death, and when he goes missing, Susan, as his closest relative, is required to take over his duties for a while. Being deeply pragmatic and rational, thanks to her first rate education, it takes Susan […]
Brandon Sanderson goes meta.
So the other day, B-Sand just decided to drop this surprise novella on us, and SURPRISE, it was surprising. I downloaded it immediately. I went into it blind, and at first, I wasn’t really very into it. It takes a little bit before you have your bearings enough to realize that no, this isn’t just yet another magical world he’s created with yet another magical system that didn’t seem all that distinct. I was particularly worried when his narrator (a first person narrator) starts talking […]
Gorgeous, Enthralling, Brilliant.
The Bees is an enthralling and gorgeously written tale in the tradition of Watership Down. The frightening realism coupled with the brilliant world-building makes for an experience that will haunt you long after the story is over. Flora 717 is born in to the lowly sanitation class of her hive but upon her emergence it is discovered she can make Flow, an essential food source for the babies. She is put to work in the nursery and rotates through several roles. Later an act of […]
So. Much. Potential. ARGH
My kingdom for this book to have not turned into an uninspired, forced, one-sided romance! It started off so well: in the late 19th century, Ceony Twill is the top graduate from the amusingly poncily-named Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined. Like other trained magicians, after graduation, she enters an apprenticeship with a tradesman-magician who specializes in a type of materials magic. The idea is that magicians can “bond” to a material and then, basically, learn the all of the magical properties of that material […]
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