Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

It’s 1945 and the war has ended. Claire Randall and her husband Frank are taking a second honeymoon in the highlands of Scotland after eight years of separation. One day, while Frank is absorbed in his research of his family history, former nurse Claire takes a walk to a small ancient rock formation to gather some plants for her collection. Suddenly and mysteriously she is hurtled back through time to the year 1743.

Alone and confused, Claire stumbles across a band of Scottish Highlanders and lies her way into their good graces. Within the group is Jamie Fraser, a charming and handsome warrior whom Claire finds herself drawn to. But what of Frank back in her own time? How will she get back? Does she even want to?

It has been a painfully long time since I have read a book as good as Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. I admit that the synopsis is chee... Read More

Warriors by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (eds.)

FORMAT/INFO: Warriors is 736 pages long divided over twenty short stories and an Introduction by George R.R. Martin. Each short story is preceded by biographical information about the author and a short description of their contribution to the anthology. March 16, 2010 marks the North American Hardcover publication of Warriors via Tor.

ANALYSIS:

“The King of Norway” by Cecelia Holland. I’ve never read anything by Cecelia Holland before, but the author is described as “one of the world’s most highly acclaimed and respected historical novelists.” Not surprisingly, her contribution finds the author doing wh... Read More

Warriors ed. by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois

To quote from George R.R. Martin’s introduction “People have been telling stories about warriors for as long as they have been telling stories.” I imagine that for most all who enjoy fantasy or almost any genre fiction, it’s the timeless tradition of the telling of warriors’ tales that is the heart of our passion. In fact, reading Martin’s introduction titled “Stories of the Spinner Rack” is enough to put Warriors on any bookworm’s reading list. For many of us who grew up in Small Town USA during the 70’s and earlier, before the big book stores and Amazon.com, we know exactly what he was talking about. It’s a very relatable trip down memory lane that primes the reader for the adventures that follow.

At 736 pages, Warriors is practically a tome. It contains twen... Read More

Songs of Love and Death edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

Songs of Love and Death is the third anthology that George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois have edited together. Like Warriors and Songs of the Dying Earth, Songs of Love and Death brings together some of the biggest names that SFF has to offer and they set these authors to work on a common theme.

Martin and Dozois offer a cross-genre anthology that ranges from Robin Hobb’s epic fantasy “Blue Boots,” which tells the story of a romance between a young serving girl and a silver-tongued minstrel, to  Read More

Songs of Love and Death by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (editors)

George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois have collected a nice batch of all-new stories from an all-star cast in Songs of Love and Death. The theme is “star-crossed lovers,” and as you might guess from the title, each tale is a love story, and many are death stories, too. Some are sad, some are sexy, and one or two are slightly sappy. Overall, I enjoyed the collection. Here’s what you’ll find in Songs of Love and Death:

“Love Hurts” by Jim Butcher may be the story Harry Dresden’s fans have been waiting for because it looks like Harry and Murphy will finally get together... or will they?
In “The Marrying Maid,” historical romance author Jo Beverley provides a Regency romanc... Read More