Category Archives: Book Reviews

During a quiet few moments at the bookstore yesterday I talked to Brandy about my disappointment in Clockwork Princess, Cassandra Clare’s third book in her Infernal Devices series. You can read my review here. Basically, Clare buried the true climax … Continue reading →

No one writes a thriller like Lee Childs. Jack Reacher is a hero who gets into highly unlikely situations, and resolves them with his strength, experience and his wits. While the situations themselves often involve wildly technically inventive and mostly … Continue reading →

Jack Vance was a writer’s writer. His own work was wonderful, and he wrote the kind of fantasy that I fell into and emerged hours later, dazed and blinking; historically, he will probably be remembered as the spark, or the … Continue reading →

Kate Wilhelm once said that the fantastical or science fictional element in a story had to be integral to the story in order for it to be fantasy or SF. If the story is still intact with that element removed, … Continue reading →

I didn’t know that. I thought they had beaks, and they do, but according to the book Gifts of the Crow, crows have four lips. They just aren’t where we mammals expect them to be. Crows, ravens and jays have … Continue reading →

The Lost Art of Debate My writer/reviewer friend Terry recently had a bully try to intimidate her on Facebook. Terry reviews for Fantasyliterature.com,and she contributes a weekly column called Magazine Monday. I am not going to include the name of … Continue reading →

I found a book called 642 Things to Write About. That’s a grammatically incorrect title; I don’t care. It is also a book with a lot of white space — lined space, to be accurate. Since it’s a workbook, that’s … Continue reading →

While she was writing her award-winning novel Swamplandia! Karen Russell would slip away to “have trysts with monsters.”  Those trysts, or the results of them, are collected in her latest book, Vampires in the Lemon Grove. Most of the stories … Continue reading →

I generally don’t read romantic comedies. I don’t watch romantic comedy movies either. It’s a matter of personal taste, and I’m not saying my taste is good (after all, I will watch any SyFy Original Monster-of-the-Moment movie; I’ll read any … Continue reading →