Night’s Master by Tanith Lee

Night’s Master is the sort of book that not everyone will like, but for what it is, it’s brilliant. The styling is exquisite, the characterization direct and to-the-point in a way I’ve rarely seen before, getting right to a character’s essence without any muddying around… I rarely say this, but this is a novel that stays with you… I loved this book. It was not particularly ambitious in a literary sense, nor was it warm and human, but in many ways that’s what made it fascinating. This is a novel that really does carry the feel of a legend and is never insecure in that role. Night’s Master never goes out of its way to appeal to the reader’s comfort. It instead presents an elegant, beautiful vision and invites others to share it. Reading this book, one can almost hear the crackle of the fire, the voice of the storyteller, the whisper of the desert wind. Read the rest.

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman

…THE SANDMAN is a remarkable work, well worthy of the praise it has received over the years. Neil Gaiman has rarely been better. A point I should make directly, though, is that this is in no way an easy-going fantasy read. Viewed as a whole, it’s probably one of the top five graphic novels ever written, and acts like it. Graphic novels are a rather different beast than pure prose, or have become so lately. At higher levels, they tend toward the cold and intellectual, and particularly the allusive, very strongly. The tendency perhaps springs from a driving urge amongst comic writers lately to force mainstream literature to take the graphic novel form seriously. Gaiman is no exception in this respect, and he has in any case always favored a good deal of intertextuality in his work. THE SANDMAN can be dense, confusing, and bizarre to a reader who is not paying attention… It’s surreal, often beautiful, sometimes twisted, and sometimes you have to work at it. Ultimately, however, it’s an experience like no other. Read the rest.

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirlees

I find myself in something of an awkward position with Lud-in-the-Mist, which is in part why it’s difficult to review. The fact of the matter is that while Lud-in-the-Mist is unequivocally an excellent novel, it is not always an enjoyable novel, and there is a large population of readers out there who may find it close to nauseating. Lud-in-the-Mist is Hope Mirrlees’s only fantasy novel, and indeed the only one of her three novels for which she is remembered (and that, for the most part in recent years, because Neil Gaiman has put in a good word or two for the book). To say that the text is unconcerned with market appeal is a vast understatement. This is a dense, often beautiful, just as often frustrating book rife with so many literary and mythological allusions that the mind fairly boggles… Lud-in-the-Mist, then, is often a confusing little book, but ultimately rewarding. You will never read anything quite like this again, and in this way, the novel itself becomes rather like the lurking Faerie outside Lud: it is thoroughly unconventional, but in that unconventionality, it is terribly lovely. Read the rest.

The Squire’s Tale by Gerald Morris

The Squire’s Tale is what I love to see out of kids’ fantasy. It’s charming, it’s well-told, it’s entertaining for a number of age groups, and even as it simplifies and plays with the mythology it uses, it remains lovingly respectful of the original texts… This firm grounding in the tradition gives his work a feel of casual authenticity. Yet Morris is also careful never to let his own clear interest in the original legends get the better of his efforts to write his own story. He alters characters and events freely, while still maintaining some whisper of the original’s feel. I can’t praise him enough for that achievement… for anyone who (like me) is an Arthur fan, this is a must-read… I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun with a children’s retelling. It really is a goofy, funny, well-meaning little story, and I’d give it to a young reader (or even a few older ones) in a heartbeat. Read the rest.

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat is the second (and probably best-regarded) of her VAMPIRE CHRONICLES. The Vampire Lestat is probably the seminal work of vampire fiction since Bram Stoker. Much of what was implied in Interview with the Vampire is made concrete here as Rice broadens and deepens her mythology, all the while creating one of the archetypal figures of the genre. The first thing one should say about The Vampire Lestat in comparison with Interview with the Vampire is that if you spent the first novel sighing to yourself that all of this was rather good, but Louis was a whiny sort of fellow who liked to talk more than to act, you shall be overjoyed with this installment. Lestat is the vital, charismatic hero that Louis was not. If he loses some of Louis’s tragedy and philosophizing, he makes it up in the simple fact that he is from the first page a more relatable character. The narrative style of Lestat’s book is faster-paced and more direct than that of Louis’s, but leaves ample room for Rice’s trademark sensual imagery and dense characterization… Read the rest.

Guardians of the Flame: The Warriors by Joel Rosenberg

Guardians of the Flame: The Warriors pleasantly surprised me. I’ll admit that going into it I was somewhat dubious: it looked like an obvious cash-in on a clichéd premise. Joel Rosenberg, however, turned out to be a more skilled author than I had anticipated, weaving a fun, fast-paced, often grim series that did exactly what it needed to. The Warriors is an omnibus volume consisting of the first three Guardians of the Flame novels: The Sleeping Dragon, The Sword and the Chain, and The Silver Crown. The Guardians of the Flame series has a fairly basic conceit. A group of college students are playing a role-playing game transparently based on Dungeons and Dragons with a professor as dungeon master. They’re clearly a rather troubled bunch, with unresolved issues that they get away from by pretending to be hulking barbarians and wily thieves and suchforth. They’re getting along fine and just starting a new quest when it turns out their professor is actually a dimension-hopping wizard and the imaginary game becomes very real… Read the rest.

The Child Thief by Gerald Brom

The Child Thief is one in a long line of novels, graphic novels, films, and cartoons concerned with giving “gritty retellings” of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, or to give that book its original name and set it apart from the play, Peter and Wendy. The phenomenon of taking an innocent old classic and muddying it up is and has been fairly widespread, but Peter and Wendy is particularly popular because it was arguably gritty enough from the start, and authors like Gerald Brom consider themselves to be not so much twisting the story as advertising it in its original form… What he creates is darker and more horrific, but also curiously less thematically disturbing, than the original… The Child Thief is rough. It’s very much the novel of a man who hasn’t tried anything of this magnitude before and is working out the kinks. That said, for those unbothered by the gritty atmosphere (or for old Barrie fans) this is a story that is entertaining despite its flaws, a decent read and a retelling that never feels as if its only goal is to ride the coattails of its predecessor. It’s an ambitious, bold run at Peter Pan, and here I’m with Fortune in favoring the bold. Read the rest.

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Howl’s Moving Castle is a book that is very easy to love. Diana Wynne Jones is a consistently entertaining author, and her prose seldom fails to be enticing and comfortable as settling into a favorite armchair, even when opening one of her books for the first time… Jones not only writes well but creates genuinely likeable characters along the way, as well as some very amusing scenes. The dialogue is smart and skillful and it manages fairly well to be the sort of children’s book that adults can easily enjoy. On top of all that, this just feels like a good-natured little book, funny and sweet and comfortable. It has its issues, and it’s probably nothing that will change most readers’ worlds, but it has the kind of easy, unpretentious charm that can let someone feel at home from the first chapter. There’s something to be said for that. Read the rest.

Hounded by Kevin Hearne

THE IRON DRUID CHRONICLES, of which Hounded is the first installment, have been on my radar for some time now, but I held them off as a kind of rainy day read. They looked funny, they were based on Irish myth (a personal favorite), and on the whole I thought I’d best save them for a time when I needed a nice, relaxing read. I was pleasantly surprised on some counts and validated on others. Hounded is a fast-moving, funny little book… I wouldn’t seize your coat and sprint for the bookstore, but if you happen to find yourself in the stacks with nothing else in mind, why not wend your way over toward a bit of Irish goofiness? Read the rest.

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

There are two major traditions when it comes to vampire fiction. In the first and older conception of them, they are out-and-out monsters, demons lusting after mortal blood from beyond the grave. Examples of this would include Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot or the original Dracula to some extent. The second tradition humanizes vampires, focusing on the men and women they once were rather than the supernatural beings they have become. Interview with the Vampire is of the latter camp, one I admit I have had little patience for in the past. Anne Rice won me over, however, with her fascinating study of the impact immortality and the supernatural might have on the mortal mind, as well as her startlingly poignant prose and elegant narrative style… This is excellent vampire fiction. Recommended to any fans of the genre, and most who are curious and don’t mind a bit of a slower-paced read. Read the rest.

The Isle of Glass by Judith Tarr

… The Isle of Glass is the kind of novel that readers will finish with a nod and a shrug rather than a smile or tears. The plot is scanty and rather unambitious and there are times when it doesn’t seem to hold together that well. However, The Isle of Glass skates over these issues with admirable panache… In fact, I would have to say that overall I enjoyed The Isle of Glass. It was tight enough that I never got bored, and I suspect that had I not read so many books with similar themes and plot, I might have enjoyed it more… Tarr made the exact steps I expected her to, following the basic plot arcs associated with her tropes with little or no deviation. For all its polished feel, the story is inescapably formulaic… A derivative novel is not necessarily a bad novel if it’s done well, and The Isle of Glass fortunately has been done well… Read the rest.

Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter

There have been some great animal stories written for children… Does Warriors: Into the Wild measure up? Not really. It’s a cute little book, clearly meant for quite young (or unambitious) readers, and in one sense I will say that it does exactly what it’s supposed to. That is, the book is fast-paced, violent, and exciting, basically guaranteed to entertain its 9-12 age group and possibly win over even reluctant readers... It’s pure escapism, with little in the way of deeper meaning… for all the necessity of writing novels that the audience in question wants to read, Warriors: Into the Wild could have done a bit better, reached a little higher, and become something truly impressive to any age group… Read the rest.

Phantastes George MacDonald

George MacDonald’s Phantastes is generally regarded as pivotal in the development of fantasy literature: it is the first ever fantasy novel written exclusively for adults. Now of course we have fantastic literature intended for an adult audience going back centuries before that, to epic poems like Thomas Chestre’s Sir Launfal in the 14th Century, or — leaving English literature behind — to the Iliad and suchforth. MacDonald, however, does bear the distinction of being the first to introduce the world to the adult fantasy in its most common present form. C.S. Lewis further cemented MacDonald as the Godfather of Fantasy by calling him “my master” and harping on at length in Surprised by Joy about what a revelation Phantastes was to him and to his own authorial aspirations. The reason I’m saying all of this is that it’s very difficult to review a MacDonald book as a simple book. In this genre, it’s akin to digging up the Neolithic ancestor who first came up with irrigation, rapping on her dusty skull with the knuckles, and saying “eh. She’s all right, I s’pose.” Read the rest.

The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

I have to admit to being rather disappointed with The Queen of the Damned. I came into the third book in Anne Rice’s VAMPIRE CHRONICLES fresh from the excellent The Vampire Lestat and ready for more. At the end of The Vampire Lestat, the reader is left with the distinct impression that everything in Rice’s meticulously constructed vampire universe is about to explode, and I was excited. It was the grand conclusion of the initial trilogy! Told from multiple perspectives! It was called The Queen of the Damned! (Honestly, that has to be the best title ever for a vampire novel.) In short, I was not burnt out on the series by this point. I was ready to love the novel. It just wasn’t to be… Read the rest.

Bloodwinter by Tom Deitz

Tom Deitz spends rather a lot of time during the course of Bloodwinter telling the reader just how extraordinarily awful the winters of his fantasy kingdom of Eron are, how Herculean must be the efforts of those who seek to cross the frozen wasteland. Without getting cuter with this analogy, there were stretches where I felt much the same about reading the novel. That isn’t to say that Bloodwinter is ever painful to read. Deitz has an excellent command of language, so the prose is never actually as listless as the events… The coincidences and unlikely happenstances just keep piling up… The novel is fairly entertaining at times and I don’t doubt it would be a fine bit of reading for a long train ride. The lazy plotting, though, is a festering wound in the book’s center, poisoning enjoyment of the experience and slowly turning even vital, interesting characters into figures the reader can only hold in contempt for the decisions they’ve made. Read the rest.

Elvenbane by Andre Norton & Mercedes Lackey

In the world of Elvenbane, elves have subjugated humanity because… well, they’re elves, frankly: magical and long-lived and perfectly capable of taking what they want. Apparently having served as the unselfish goodie-goodies one too many times, elves have instead been refreshingly cast as the fantasy version of the Roman Empire in this text, conquering and enslaving other races out of a sense of entitlement and a desire to expand their power… Elvenbane starts off with a very entertaining premise, I admit, and though I am far from a Mercedes Lackey fan, I was willing to give the Andre Norton/Mercedes Lackey team the benefit of the doubt and have a look. For a time, I was not disappointed (if not actively inspired) and was ready to log this away as a blandly fun fantasy romp. The trouble, however, starts to emerge at about the two-fifths mark. It’s at that point that, for whatever reason, the Lackey/Norton pairing stops being a happy marriage. Reading the book was like watching them bickering…. Read the rest.