Mine

Title: Mine
Author: Lin Sten

Ratings

Score: 8/10

Review

It's been a long time since I stayed up till 4am reading. At least, unless you count last night. You can probably tell from that that I enjoyed it, and I'm sure the author enjoyed writing it. It's a happy book, an uplifting one. One that it's easy to enjoy reading. But it's not easy to read. It's Technical, Hard Sci-Fi, and there will be more about that later in the review. But first I want to talk about the characters. They're great.

Essentially that's the summary of the characters. I can't think of a single character that I didn't like. Maybe the chat-show host, Charles Dance. But of the main characters, there are none that are boring or lifeless. Even the bad guy seems somewhat lovable as the story progresses. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Generally it's helpful to have someone to hate. Normally the bad guy, but not always. This doesn't have that, but while unusual, it reflects the theme of the book quite well (that of coexisting with other species).

The Gift (Chiveis Trilogy Book 2)

Title: The Gift
Author: Bryan M. Litfin

Series: The Chiveis Trilogy
Preceeded By: The Sword
Succeeded By: ???

Ratings

Score: 7/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: I look forwards to it.

Review

Normally I start with a review with a short introduction to what I thought about the book. This time I'm going to do it differently, and start with a review of the introduction of the book itself. Firstly there's the prologue. Now it's the second in a trilogy - and normally I don't like prologues in the second of a trilogy. But this was short, and in essence was the same as the prologue of the first novel - extended a bit to briefly (barely) cover what happened to the main characters in book one. I felt it didn't really didn't need to be there, but it doesn't harm the story. But what I really want to talk about of the introduction is the first chapter. The start of the novel finds the main characters (Ana and Teo) with a small group of scouts. The author uses this as a way to help remind the reader of what happened in the first book (The Sword). It's not a unique way to recap the readers, but the way Litfin utilises this tool is possibly the thing I admire most about the beginning of the book. It's easy to read - not just a long monologue about the previous book - it even misses out the majority of the story. But it shows the character of the characters, and from the first chapter we are once more identifying with and sympathetic to the characters, Ana in particular.

NEWS: Monthly Newsletter

Hi Everyone,

I'm thinking of adding a monthly newsletter style post to the blog. perhaps the last Sunday of every month, or something along those lines. Now some of you might not want this. Some of you might just want to read reviews, and not bother with the running with the site.

Fair Enough. It's what you came for. Then really, you should look at post with the "review" tag. To be helpful, here's the link http://sfandfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/search/label/Review. You can bookmark that for a quick link. But once a month isn't so bad is it?

The American Book of the Dead

Title: Henry Baum
Author: The American Book of the Dead

Ratings

Score: 10/10

Review

I have no idea how the author of this book could have remained sane. Perhaps he didn't. This is one of the most complex books I've read - yet is remarkably easy to understand. I don't know how it does it. Somehow it tricks your brain into thinking without you realising or something. It's a book about a writer who writes a book that he's already written which is the book that you'd be reading if you read this book. Try not to think about that too much. It's basically a summary of the introduction - which I found confusing until I'd read the rest of the book. This review doesn't quite do it justice, but IT IS definitely worth a read.

Invincible (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Book Nine)

Title: Invincible
Author: Troy Denning
Superseries: Star Wars
Series: Legacy of the Force
Preceeded By: Revelation by Karen Traviss


Ratings

Score: 7/10
Overall Series Rating: 9/10

Review

This book had a lot to live up to. The series as a whole has been incredible thus far, and the previous book particularly so. If this book was to even match my expectations it had a lot to do. Quite frankly: it didn't.

This was the book that everything had been centering on. The loose storylines, the tension, the emotion... All of them really suggested that this was going to be something big. But it actually seemed like the author wasn't really that into it anymore. I felt that scenes were cut short, characters were fairly two dimensional - except Jaina and Ben - and that the conclusion happened too fast.

Revelation (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Book Eight)

Title: Revelation
Author: Karen Traviss
Superseries: Star Wars
Series: Legacy of the Force
Preceeded By: Fury by Aaron Allston
Succeeded By: Invincible by Aaron Allston

Ratings

Score: 10/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Never more sure that I would.

Review

This book is the best in the Legacy of the Force series. I waited until having read the final book to add this claim - and it still holds after that. In some ways it's odd, because of the first books by each of the three authors, I liked Traviss' the least. But she has shown that she is undoubtedly a brilliant writer.

Fury (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Book Seven)

Title: Fury
Author: Aaron Allston
Superseries: Star Wars
Series: Legacy of the Force
Preceeded By: Inferno by Troy Denning
Succeeded By: Revelation by Karen Traviss

Ratings

Score: 9/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Definite

Review

When I reviewed the last book Allston wrote in the series, it as the worst so far. As of this book, I'm happy to say it keeps it's position. Allston exceeds his previous book considerably - and I found myself reading "Fury" much more voraciously than I read "Exile". It was an engaging story, filled with excitement and entertainment, AND we finally get to see a little bit more of Jaina - who until now has been mainly sidelined.

NEWS: Recent Delay

Some of you may have noticed that the most recent review was posted a few hours late. What happened!? Well, essentially Blogger/Blogspot/Google was having some problems and decided to solve it by deleting posts from the last three days temporarily (although none have mine have returned) and making it impossible to post for a while.

Since I had this on timer, it would have posted anyway I believe. Except that I set the timer two days ago. Meaning that that version of the post was deleted, and the old version without an incorrect timer was all that remained. I didn't know this at the time, so posted the post manually (apparently just after I was allowed to do so again.). I don't think this will happen again any time soon, but I thought I'd let people know what happened (Something Google is hesitant to do, apparently). Note: may get a second post of the previous entry sometime next week. I'm not sure if the old version will still try to post or not.

The Rogue (Traitor Spy Trilogy - Book Two)

Title: The Rogue
Author: Trudi Canavan
Series: Traitor Spy Trilogy
Preceeded By: The Ambassador's Mission
Succeeded By: The Traitor Queen (Due 2012)

NOTE: NOT SURE WHY, BUT THE AUTOMATIC SCHEDULING DIDN'T WORK - APOLOGIES FOR THE LATE POST.

Ratings

Score: 7/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: I'd like to...

Review

Trudi Canavan is an exceptional author. I expect that even if the publisher did no marketing for the book at all, it would still become a bestseller.

But like all authors, only one of her books can be the very best, and unfortunately this isn't it. It must be difficult for an author to hear that her latest book wasn't as good as the last, but when previous books include "High Lord", "The Magician's Apprentice" and "Last of the Wilds" it really is an extremely high standard to set.

Inferno (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Book Six)

Title: Inferno
Author: Troy Denning
Superseries: Star Wars
Series: Legacy of the Force
Preceeded By: Sacrifice (by Karen Traviss)
Succeeded By: Fury (by Aaron Allston)

Ratings

Score: 9/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Definite :-)

Review

I bought this book on amazon. When deciding which version of the book to purchase (I eventually went with paperback) I looked at a couple of the reviews. One or two said that it was the worst in the series. I find myself having to disagree with them. It's not the best, both the previous book in the series (Sacrifice - Karen Traviss) and the previous book written by Denning (Tempest) exceeded it. But It wasn't the worst either. I really enjoyed reading more about Luke, who has been pretty much absent from previous books, and also of Han and Leia, who seem to come and go in previous books.

Marked (Soul Guardians - Book One)

Title: Marked
Author: Kim Richardson
Series: Soul Guardians Trilogy

Succeeded By: Tricked (Not Yet Published)

Ratings

Score: 9/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: I'm looking forwards to it.

Review

This is possibly the hardest review I've had to write. Not because the book was bad, in fact I was rather impressed by it. No, the reason that it's been hard to review is that it's closest book I've come to on this blog that could be classed as "chick-lit". It's unfamiliar territory for me.

But don't let this stop you from reading it! The majority of my blog's readers are male, but I would still say that they should consider this book. Especially if they are looking for a light, easy read.

Stormlord Rising (Watergivers Book Two)

Title: Stormlord Rising
Author: Glenda Larke
Series: Watergivers
Preceeded By: The Last Stormlord
Succeeded By: Stormlord's Exile

Ratings

Score: 9/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Definite

Review

According to my blog stats, the prequel to this book - "The Last Stormlord" - is the most viewed review on my blog. Apparently people are quite interested in the series. And I can see why, that first book was really good. This second one though, is even better.

As before it has a striking cover, apparently of a woman this time, which really does it's job of attracting readers. And they should be attracted. But ideally to the Last Storlord first, as that really needs to be read before a lot of this one can be understood.But it's worth doing. In this one we see shale undergoing a lot of character development, and Terenelle as well to a lesser degree. But character development means nothing without a good plot, and this one is almost irresistibly good.

Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter

Title: Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
Author: Michael Reaves
Superseries: Star Wars
Preceeded By: Darth Maul Saboteur (eBook Novella by James Luceno - currently available in the back of modern editions of Shadow Hunter)

Ratings

Score: 8/10


Review

Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter was the first book that I read in the Star Wars extended universe, and it's probably due to this book that my blog is currently rather full of star wars book reviews. It's not my favourite book in the Star Wars franchise, but it is one that I will always enjoy reading - and have indeed read several times.

Dead Forever: Resonance

Title: Resonance
Author:William Campell
Series: Dead Forever Trilogy (Book Three)
Preceeded By: Apotheosis


Ratings

Score: 9/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: There isn't any :-(

Review
If I'm honest, I would have to say I wasn't expecting a lot from this book. Not because I doubted the author's talents, but because of where the last book left things. Essentially what had been a story set in the vast expanse of the galaxy has been reduced to the story of someone on a single planet, Earth.

I'm happy to report that actually, Campbell pulls this off really well. I mainly expected the story to be for a large part stand-alone, but it integrates with the previous books quite impressively. It's difficult to explain how well it does work without just simply copying the first few chapters, but from the start, it does work well. So, alleviated of my fears, I could allow myself to simply enjoy the book.

Acorna: The Unicorn Girl (Acorna - Book One)

Title: Acorna: The Unicorn Girl
Author: Anne McCaffrey & Margaret Ball
Series: Acorna (Book One)

Succeeded By: Acorna's Quest

Ratings

Score: 11/10
Can I do that?

How likely I am to read the next in the series: I always do immediately after I read this one.

Review

Note: This review refers in general to the entire Acorna series, as well as this specific book.

When asked which, out of all my books, I would recommend first, I was stumped. There are so many good books that I love, and how could I choose between then. But as I sat looking at my ridiculously large book collection, I realised that there was only one it could be. Acorna.

Sacrifice (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Book Five)

Title: Sacrifice
Author: Karen Traviss
Superseries: Star Wars
Series: Legacy of the Force
Preceeded By: Exile
Succeeded By: Inferno

Ratings

Score: 10/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Definite

Review

I'm having trouble starting this review in any sort of catchy way, so let's assume I have, and i'll get on with it. Basically, this is pretty much the best book of the series so far. The characters are incredible, the plot is generally unpredictable, and Boba Fett is back again.

Starchild and Witchfire

Title: Starchild and Witchfire
Author: David Henshall

Ratings

Score: 10/10


Review

Starchild and Witchfire is one of the earliest books I remember reading, except perhaps the gingerbread man, and I still enjoy it today. It's a kid's book, and so naturally the main characters are children, a boy and his sister, who get caught up in a quest to save a world that is apart from their, and our, own.

NEWS: More Posts, More Regularly...

Those who regularly read this blog may have noticed that for the last for weeks, every post has been on a Tuesday. That's because I decided that reviewing regularly was a good idea, and likely to make more people keep reading the blog.

Now... One review a week isn't a lot. But since this is pretty much a bobby-type affair, real-life prevents me reading lots of books a week. So I've come to a conclusion. It doesn't take long to write the review, just the reading. So there will be another post each week, with either a shorter, less detailed review of books that I've already read or reviews of shorter books (Such as those aimed at Children). This will allow me to spread more reviews, without taking up too much more of my time, as well as reviewing some of the Kid's books I have waiting.

The first of these Friday posts will be posted in exactly 24 hours from this post, and the first few will be some of my favourite books. The Tuesday posts will continue ro be books read with the intention of reviewing, as usual.


Hopefully this will allow me to review more books, more regularly, and more often.

-Adam

Dark Lord (Falconfar Book One)

Title: Dark Lord
Author: Ed Greenwood
Series: Falconfar

Succeeded By: Arch Wizard

Ratings

Score: 8/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: I'd really like to.

Review

I've read quite a few books this year, and as a student the year for me begins in September, so that's quite some time to be reading.  But this is very likely to be the most unique of all of them.

I decided to review it almost entirely on the strength of the title, "Dark Lord", with the incredible artwork on the cover enticing me further. It embarrasses me somewhat to say that I actually had no idea of what it was about... But it paid off. If I had read the blurb, I would have chosen a different book. It's about a man who travels to his own fantasy world, and I generally avoid these books, for reasons which will be explained below...

Exile (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Book Four)

Title: Exile
Author: Aaron Allston
Super-series: Star Wars
Series: Legacy of the Force
Preceded By: Tempest (By Troy Denning)
Succeeded By: Sacrifice (By Karen Traviss)

Ratings

Score: 8/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Ordered it already!

Review

There is a rule I've heard in several places. The second in a trilogy is always the worst. Now the glaring exception to this rule is the Original Star Wars trilogy, where the Empire Strikes Back was probably the best, but in general, it seems to be true. This isn't part of a trilogy, but each author writes three books, and I'm hoping the rule applies to that too. Why? Because Allston's second book wasn't as good as I was hoping.

That's not to say it's bad! I've rated it 8/10, which is still a high score. It's just not at quite the same level as the previous three in the series. There are three reasons for this, the first of which is this: