Category: Books
The Summer Palace (The Annals Of The Chosen volume 3) by Lawrence Watt-Evans (book review).
‘The Summer Palace’ is the third volume in ‘The Annals Of The Chosen’, which began with ‘The Wizard Lord’ and continued in ‘The Ninth Talisman’. In fact, ‘The Summer Palace’ is the second half of the story told in ‘The Ninth Talisman’, which ended on a cliff-hanger. The cliffs in question are the eastern cliffs […]
Vigil (The Verity Fassbinder series book 1) by Angela Slatter (book review).
When I saw this in the SFCrowsnest list of unclaimed review copies, it immediately struck me as something I might like. I’ve always been a fan of stories that combine detective fiction with the supernatural. Having said that, I generally prefer the supernatural element to not be too common. Worlds that have every sort of […]
Perspective Made Easy by Ernest R. Norling (book review).
I occasionally come across this book, ‘Perspective Made Easy’ by Ernest R. Norling in artbook bibliographies and pulled a copy last year, only now finding time to read it. Unusual for Dover Publications, this is a regular paperback sized book although this has more to do with its original 1939 release. Like grammar, artists might […]
Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts (book review).
In the far distant future, a group of long-lived humans take a 40 light year flight aboard the starship Forward to investigate an interesting feature detected on the planet V538 Aurigae. The craft is also a generation ship for what appears to be a sub-species of human and briefly reminded me of ‘Non-Stop’ by Brian […]
The North Beyond Part 3: Haldur by P.M. Scrayfield (book review).
It is not often that all the books in a trilogy or, in this case, a tetralogy are published simultaneously. By issuing books at suitable intervals it gives the author time to reflect and see if any problems arose in the earlier volume and look for ways to correct them. Simultaneous publication doesn’t allow this […]
Mastering Composition by Richard Garvey-Williams (book review).
Remember me writing last month that I got a second book focusing on photographic composition and saying there isn’t much difference between the two mediums, well apart from artistic ability. I do wonder if anyone has ever gauged just how well artists do as first-time photographers? After all, we already have an eye for composition. […]
The Ninth Talisman (The Annals Of The Chosen volume 2) by Lawrence Watt-Evans (book review).
‘The Ninth Talisman’ is the second volume in ‘The Annals Of The Chosen’ series, following ‘The Wizard Lord’. In that book, ordinary village bloke Breaker became The Swordsman, one of the Chosen who act as a check on the Wizard Lord who rules the land of Barokan and have the duty to either remove him […]
The Frozen Crown (Warrior Witch Duology book 1) by Greta Kelly (book review).
Emperor Radovan has taken six wives, one from each of the nation’s he has conquered. All six have died. Each marriage brought with it a brief moment of peace which shattered as each princess fell to her death from Radovan’s tower. The kingdom of Seravesh is the latest country to be ground under the expansionist […]
Robots & Artificial Intelligence Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy).
This anthology ‘Robots & Artificial Intelligence’ from Flame Tree Publishing has the exciting notion of mixing classic tales on the theme with new ones by modern writers. The stories and extracts come at you in alphabetical order by author, beginning with Frank L. Baum and ending with Eleanor R Wood. Although I enjoyed the mix, […]
The Astounding Illustrated History Of Science Fiction (book review).
With any book, always pay attention to the title as to what the content is supposed to be. ‘The Astounding Illustrated History Of Science Fiction’ is supposed to be about the illustrated aspect of SF and despite Pat Mills introduction, the initial focus is on SF origins than where art, beyond covers, entered into the […]
