Vampires bloody everywhere.
Or bloody vampires everywhere. After Kell gets done with them, anyway.
In the second book of this Gemmellesque homage trilogy Kell is still looking to rescue his granddaughter. Saark is still attempting to be able to just have a good time – with the problem that almost anyone he runs into wants [...]
Hunter Flame Tree.
3.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-return-an-innkeepers-world-story-by-peter-s-beagle/
Continue reading about Return: An Innkeeper’s World Story – Peter S. Beagle
“Mungo pushed back the sleeves of his leathers. They weren’t intended to be push-backable, but they were pushed back all the same. He cleared his throat. “You can’t run away from the responsibilities you’ve created, boyo. You’ll have to marry her now and make an honest woman of her.”
“Squigs wildly started to say that he [...]
Continue reading about Save the Dragons Epilogue – Dave Freer
“He wondered, not for the first time, whether “opera” was short for “operation without anesthetic.” Well, as a warning he’d play some of that . . . what was the fellow’s name? The one who was . . . fond of children. That stuff would make any mere devil or imp run screaming, clutching their [...]
“Korg gave a gusty sigh. “Sorry, mate. Not used to all this inactivity. As for teaching these rock-bodies . . . I’d need a diamond edge to my axe, or better still a rock-drill to get anywhere with these blokes.”
Squigs nodded distractedly. “Yeah. The devils and demons are tougher too. Purer silicates. What you [...]
““Grobos! No!” Ironspell screamed a warning as the fallen Runesblood came flying back into his hand. But he was too late to save the gnome.
The she-demon wrapped her arms about the stunted wizard’s neck. Her serpentine tale encircled his body, squeezing with unearthly might. Ironspell heard the gnome’s bones cracking even as Grobos moaned in [...]
Continue reading about The Weird of Ironspell 6 The Tomb of Azazar – John R. Fultz
“He wouldn’t pass for human, except possibly around Piccadilly Circus, where aliens from Betelguese and further afield have been known to spend several weeks, only ever being noticed by muggers, who respond poorly to their “take me to your leader” statements. But one glance at the wrinkled-map face, and the single rheumy eye peering over [...]
“The only clue as to where the dwarf could have got to was a love-starved weedeater gazing longingly downstream from the battlements.”
3.5 out of 5
http://savethedragons.nu/chapter21.html
“”So I can wait no longer?” M’lord Strate said to the seven beings in the sulphurous-smoky room. All of those he consulted bore an unmistakable stamp. True, they weren’t wearing ties, that normal trademark of the investment banker, stockbroker or market manipulator. Two of them would have had serious problems doing so, as they were [...]
“”My dear Hu. The agency has been trying to penetrate their senior ranks for several hundred years. We’ve been so effectively blocked, that Sylvester thinks they must have penetrated us. Higher up. I,” he said, “have another theory.”
Huigi flicked anther glance at Squigs. “And that is?”
“Quis Custodiet ipsos Custodes, my dear boy,” said the Count, [...]
“I showed him the big grin. It’s a sight that has made grown men piss themselves, and it doesn’t come without cost. I’d have a sore jaw for a few hours after exposing a smile that resembles a box of long nails.”
2.5 out of 5
http://paizo.com/pathfinder/tales/serial
““I’m busy. Go find a nest of bunnies to play with until I’m done here.” Kit pressed her face against his cheek to peer down the arrow shaft. Although he couldn’t exactly feel her, tiny itches radiated everywhere she touched his skin. A strand of her silver hair fell across his left eye. Caim resisted [...]
“Let the winds of jungle’s night
Stay the hunter in her flight.
Evening’s breath to witch’s mind;
Let our fates be intertwined.
Jhereg! Do not pass me by.
Show me where thine egg doth lie.”
http://dragaera.info/mailinglists/dragaera/archive/2004q3/013769.html
4.5 out of 5
“She shook her head sadly, worked to speak clearly. “Someone from the City of Mab had been to see him. Five times in the past year. I was just curious. Bel Zheret showed up when—” She winced.
Paet brought up the knife. “They take him?”
Jenien nodded. “He struggled; they killed him.”
“Ah.”
“I don’t want to die,” she [...]
Continue reading about The Office of Shadow 1 – Matthew Sturges
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
4 out of 5
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/all-that-is-gold-does-not-glitter/
Continue reading about All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter – J. R. R. Tolkien
Peyrton ghost knight.
3 out of 5
http://www.ideomancer.com/hr/Dedman-Valley/Dedman-Valley.htm
Continue reading about Valley of the Shadows – Stephen Dedman
The second best of this series.
The overall situation being forecast for war, war, war and more war.
Stenwold Maker is desperately trying to lessen the force of the hammer coming towards Collegium by having his agents and allies attempt to fight battles at different places, drawing off some of their forces. In Solarno, in Sarn, [...]
Chesty releases.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about Seven Sins For Seven Dwarves – Hilary Goldstein
Hopefully not poison ones.
3.5 out of 5
Vulture ripper Door.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about Epidapheles And The Insufficiently Affectionate Ocelot – Ramsey Shehadeh
“I’m not a demon!” I protested.
“He lies!” said Lombardo. “Think on it! Have not your crops failed, your livestock sickened, your children disobeyed, your wives nagged you?” The wide-eyed villagers nodded assent to these propositions. Lombardo jabbed at me with the rapier. Evading it, I stumbled backward over the bench and tumbled to the floor. [...]
Only excerpt appears to be at this blog? This is something that Gollancz (or Orion) are terrible at. This book being actually out and all.
“choose now, in the prime of your imminent death, to start worrying about women?”
“Not ‘women,’ exactly, but ‘woman.’”
“A noble endeavor,” Denaos replied, taking another swig.
“Kataria.”
There was a choked sputter [...]
Knight bashing at the pointy end.
3 out of 5
http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/spectra/PDF/THE_OGRES_PRIDE.pdf
Treasure stuff.
http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/2010/03/saving-the-gleeful-horse/
Continue reading about Saving the Gleeful Horse – K. J. Bishop
Glass Dragons continues the tongue-in-cheek story of what happens to this world after Silverdeath.
Dragons in these books are wizards who can manage a sorcerous transform.
Laron is still involved, and Velander, and Terikel, but the focus changes to a young man who can sing a bit and is a decent brawler, and also to an untalented [...]
Too sugary, rather eat crunchy kids.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about A Delicate Architecture – Catherynne M. Valente
Cheesy inn.
2.5 out of 5
“So he sat down again and took off his shoes. After writing his name and a few other words on the heel of his left shoe, he trimmed a strip of leather from the sole and tied it around his bare left foot at the arch. He did the same with the other shoe (and [...]
Continue reading about Turn Up This Crooked Way – James Enge
““Ten days law — that’s what you got, eh?” the thug whispered. “Ten days to reach the border, then if they catch you inside it — zzccch! When’d your time run out, uh, was it twenny days ago? Thirty?”
“Two months.”
“Sure. Call a Keep, scut-face. By sunrise they’ll have your head drying on a stake upside [...]
“It went on for a while longer until the Enemy gave up and the illusion-bait disappeared. Left behind (because it was real, not illusion) was an immense man-trap — or horse-trap, really, since it was made to catch our horses as we gallopped to the rescue. I dismounted and went forward to move the thing [...]
Five of them, unfortunately.
2 out of 5
Continue reading about The Secret Lives of Fairy Tales – Steven Popkes
““She has betrayed us,” Tisamon stated simply. Abruptly all expression was gone from his angular features but that was only because it had fled inward.
“There are . . . reasons,” Stenwold said, wishing to defend his absent friend and yet not turn the duellist’s anger against himself. The man’s cold, hating eyes locked on to [...]
Continue reading about Empire In Black and Gold 1-2 – Adrian Tchaikovsky
Evil twin valkyrie caper.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about Delta Void and the Clockwork Man – Tansy Rayner Roberts
Zebra stitchup slice.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about Stone Wall Truth – Caroline M. Yoachim
Gargoyle agitation.
3 out of 5
An omicollection if you like, a la Baen about a group of ordinary-seeming but rather resourceful dodgy soldiers in the Warhammer fantasy setting.
Blackhearts Omnibus : Hetzau’s Follies – Nathan LongBlackhearts Omnibus : Valnir’s Bane – Nathan LongBlackhearts Omnibus : Rotten Fruit – Nathan LongBlackhearts Omnibus : The Broken Lance – Nathan LongBlackhearts Omnibus : Tainted [...]
Continue reading about Blackhearts the Omnibus – Nathan Long
The last novel in this collection takes up almost directly after the end of the last one.
Here we have a combination of problems again affecting out team of no-goods – along with some new recruits.
The various nobles are scheming against each other – including Manfred. Throw in a dark elf sorcerer, a warpstone [...]
“He had been dead, he realized, those seventeen years. Only Stenwold’s return and the discovery of Tynisa had awoken him to some kind of half-life, but beneath it all some part of him had slumbered on. Until Felise. He had not known who she was, what her purpose, or her allegiance. He had not needed [...]
Continue reading about Salute the Dark 1 – Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Blackhearts are now officially dead, being hanged in proxy. However, that doesn’t get them off the hook. Now unbranded, they instead have a remote -activation sorcerous poison installed to keep them in line.
The mission this time is to find out why gold shipments aren’t being delivered to the Empire from a mine [...]
Stripped sorceress and strung scofflaws.
3 out of 5
This is your dirty dozen plot.
Go on a nasty mission for us you soldier boys in the brig, or else get hung.
So, being soldiers, they opt for branding and the secret mission. A motley crew of wastrels, pikemen, surgeons, bowmen, duellists, and others, all who had been arrested for some supposed crime or other. Some [...]
The Fellowship Of the Ring
I originally read this in a beaten up one volume version of myfather’s. My three volume collection is now beaten up, covered incontact, and has the odd twistie stain from reading it as a kid.
The story starts slowly, as a bunch of the short hairy guysprocrastinate about when to leave the [...]
Continue reading about The Lord Of the Rings – J. R. R. Tolkien
An omnibus.
Shadow Games – Glen Cook
After this, the series starts to lose its way a little, but this installment is still quite good. There are some nasty problems with more than one shape shifter, and of course, those undead wizards are still highly problematic for those in the company.
4 out of 5
Dreams of Steel – [...]
An omnibus of two books
Soldiers Live – Glen CookA very neat little twist indeed, contained in this story for that grumpy old man Croker. Very apt use of the title, and I was pleasantly surprised by the end. I really thought I wouldn’t like this much at all. Cook has done well to finish the [...]
Continue reading about The Many Deaths Of the Black Company – Glen Cook
An omnibus
Bleak Seasons
One of the weakest Black Company novels. If you like the others though, this is still good enough to read, as the whole sordid saga continues. Sordid from the point of view of the Company, anyway, and the conditions they have to endure to survive. That seems to have always been the [...]
Continue reading about The Return Of the Black Company – Glen Cook
“Sylvan is a world where you cannot see the tree for the woods.”
3 out of 5
http://www.savethedragons.nu/chapter18.html
Aliera is arrested by the Empire for dabbling in Elder Sorcery. She also happens to be Warlord at the time. The penalty for this is of course execution.
Now, in Dragaera the Iorich are the lawyers. So, Vlad and lawyers, given he decides of course to come back to Adrilankha and help Aliera [...]
Generally speaking in a fantasy novel you will find that the priests of the Death Cult are not very nice people. Or, at least the antagonist or people to be removed as obstacles. See Graham Masterton’s Pariah for example of the exact same god our protagonist here is the Servant of.
Not so here. [...]
Continue reading about Servant Of the Underworld – Aliette de Bodard
“I’ll deal with Leggilass,” said Squigs. “He’s lying, and you’ll just kill him. I’ll get answers. Go with Mungo and see if Kate or Vila or Venus have taken any of their gear.”
3.5 out of 5
http://www.savethedragons.nu/chapter17.html
Madness of Flowers is a different animal to Trial of Flowers. First is is considerably longer. The first book was closer to 120000 words. This volume clocks in at somewhere approaching 150000 words.
The book itself is broken down into four parts:
I: POLLINATIONII: GERMINATIONIII: BLOSSOMINGIV: HARVEST
In the first novel, Trial of Flowers, Bijaz the Dwarf, Imago [...]
Running out of schoolkids, but not out of pies.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&task;=download&id;=58341&file;=books/ybf9/YBF9-8.pdf
Uri rebellion.
2.5 out of 5
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/arkenberg_01_10/
Continue reading about All the King’s Monsters – Megan Arkenberg
Keepin’ on.
3 out of 5
Lawgiver, Judge.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about Bitter Fruit: A Tale Of Crownland – Eluki Bes Shahar
I *swear* she was a Chaos priestess when I killed her.
3.5 out of 5
Pervert pederast, no trolls.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.alexbledsoe.com/abthingsthatfit.html
You only get her in a package deal.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.hubfiction.com/2010/01/issue-108/
Continue reading about By Bargain and Blood – Aliette de Bodard
Siege death.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=70
Continue reading about In the Age Of Iron and Ashes – Aliette de Bodard
Not bitter, really.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth – Christina F. York
Rat lost.
3 out of 5
Dragon smoosh transformation.
3 out of 5
Dead more than Once.
3 out of 5
Dark house women blood.
3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Winter Of Our Discontent – Nancy Holder
Longblade con Boned cinnamon kisses.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about Rescuing the Elf Princess Again – Ed Greenwood
Libriomancy Smudge mediocrity.
2.5 out of 5
Continue reading about Mightier Than the Sword – Jim C. Hines
Light control potion, meta.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about The Gods Of Every Other Wednesday Night – Stephen Leigh
Think you’re a newfangled troll.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about You Forgot Whose Realm This Really Is! – Brian M. Thomsen
Rolling up the thief family portal.
4 out of 5
Continue reading about Game Testing – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Choice of death inheritance.
3 out of 5
Mine butcher.
2.5 out of 5
No holiday
3 out of 5
Unlicensed magic.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about A Clean Getaway – Keith R. A. DeCandido
I was going to write about this at some length by story, but there is no usable ebook version and I haven’t had time to scan it yet. I also wanted to get a rating of it in for this year, given I read it quite some time ago and am rapidly running out [...]
“He had quickly tired of divinity. There was a soul-satisfying warmth in opening his empty hand to find a flax seed or gaming chip. The trick never failed to amuse at dinners. But he had not been prepared for the expectation of spiritual purpose that accrued around him like flies on a street drunk.
Bijaz had [...]
Continue reading about Madness Of Flowers 1 Pollination – Jay Lake
“‘Who called prow?’ shouted Brannog, his arm gripping that of a companion.
‘Yarnol,’ came the reply, almost a snarl. The man pointed. ‘Out there!’
‘Have you seen it?’
‘Aye!’ came a shout beside them. ‘I swear it. A prow! No mast. Tom away, likely. But she floats.’
‘She’ll never make shore,’ Brannog cried, and with the wind streaming like [...]
Continue reading about A Place Among the Fallen 1 – Adrian Cole
Just wanna be a girl pirate.
3 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/index.php?task=download&file;=books/ybf9/YBF9-6.pdf
Continue reading about Araminta Or The Wreck Of The Amphidrake – Naomi Novik
Blueface babyeater.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about In the Days Of the Red Animals – Kate Orman
“This animated head and chest of a man who may never have lived, yet existed so deeply in the Change that he saw things no human could see, had travelled with them all the way from Ulum with the rest of the Mierlos’ possessions. Bound to Sal’s grandmother by some sort of life-debt, the man’kin [...]
Continue reading about The Storm Weaver and the Sand 1 – Sean Williams
“And they drove: out of the sand dunes and into firmer country, with round, weathered hills the colour of brown, lifeless dirt. They stuck to dry riverbeds and isolated road fragments as often as they could. Maps in the buggy’s tool box gave them a rough idea of where to head, although many of the [...]
Continue reading about The Sky Warden and the Sun 1 – Sean Williams
“Father and son were on the run when they came to Fundelry, a small, coastal village on the stretch of the Strand known by its ancient name of Gooron. The sun was low in the sky, shining wanly through a spattering of wispy clouds. Kneeling on the front passenger seat, Sal clutched the roll bar [...]
Continue reading about The Stone Mage and the Sea 1 – Sean Williams
Demon hunter investigation.
3 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&task;=download&id;=58336&file;=books/ybf9/YBF9-3.pdf
Continue reading about Philologos Or A Murder In Bistrita – Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald
Change blood blade.
3.5 out of 5
Prefer something other than marriage, beasty.
3 out of 5
Glory freedom breaking.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=66
Continue reading about Child Of Sunlight Woman Of Blood – Tina Connolly
Who needs a kid, anyway?
2.5 out of 5
http://media.rawvoice.com/podcastle/media.libsyn.com/media/podcastle/PC075_TheManWhoCarvedSkulls.mp3
Continue reading about The Man Who Carved Skulls – Richard Parks
I’m bad mum. Shagging, you know. Also sorcery.
3 out of 5
It is too reasonable to kill the priest.
4 out of 5
Certainly a slightly odd book as a woman with no name (not a gunfighter though) wakes up and sets out.
A warrior, she also becomes other things ranging all the way from goddess back down to domestic.
She is also rather superhuman, which helps her survive a lot of the trouble she gets into. Also why [...]
Magician birdsong torment.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&task;=download&id;=58335&file;=books/ybf9/YBF9-2.pdf
Thief golem, witch wizard baby yum.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&task;=download&id;=58335&file;=books/ybf9/YBF9-2.pdf
Continue reading about From the Clay Of His Heart – John Brown
Character improvement.
3.5 out of 5
http://reflectionsedge.com/index.php/2008/08/blue-cherry-sky/
“The trigger-happy policeman found himself with his wrist pinned to a no-parking sign by a skillfully wielded rapier. “Squigs tells me that you are supposed to be officers of the law. I am Lord Ashill, and a justice of the peace. I am accustomed to being treated with respect by people of your order. Now, [...]
“With Korg watching him expectantly, Squigs sacrificed his arteries on the altar of friendship. “How’d you like it?” said the dwarf, when Squigs arrived at the inch-thick sediment at the bottom.
“Er it’s, um, it’s . . . it’s . . . quite strong,” he replied.
“Huh! You should try pygmy coffee,” said Korg. “The stuff they [...]
“While they’d been doing this, the heroes had been setting up pipe-bombs. Squigs, in quiet determination to get his own way, had modified these. Instead of the blast being directed upwards, now they would blow a cone of metal junk downwards. To the non-technically minded heroes a pipe-bomb was a pipe bomb. Squigs had carefully [...]
Three novellas of black humour and sorcery from Steven Erikson’s Malazan setting.
Bauchelain and Korbal Broach : Blood Follows – Steven EriksonBauchelain and Korbal Broach : The Healthy Dead – Steven EriksonBauchelain and Korbal Broach : The Lees of Laughter’s End – Steven Erikson
Battleaxe perhaps better than necromancy.
When a man, whom we discover later is [...]
Continue reading about Bauchelain and Korbal Broach – Steven Erikson
Korbal, Bauchelain and Emancipor Reese have a demon on ship excursion.
3 out of 5
Continue reading about The Lees Of Laughter’s End – Steven Erikson
Little dragon discovery.
2.5 out of 5
Continue reading about Mesopotamian Fire – Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple
Tulpa runthrough.
3 out of 5
No more spoiled daughters.
3 out of 5
Boil unrepentant.
3.5 out of 5